Cassie – Page 2 – Kelly's Kwilts

Goodbye 2020!

Ugh, I was so hoping to get more quilting done this year! We had all this time at home and I could have done so much. However, I did have an absolutely wonderful year for my business and had lots of time spent with the hubby and kids.

I have started hand quilting my first hexagon quilt, it’s slow going because I have so many hand projects that I rotate through. I’ve only been working in the white areas, because I haven’t decided what thread I want to use in the hexie flowers yet. I figure there’s a lot of white and I can decide the other color(s) later. You should be able to see the detail if you click on the pictures. My stitches aren’t 100% uniform, but I’m getting the hang of it and as it’s not going in a show/contest I don’t care. It’s mine and it’s been 100% stitched by hand. I don’t think I’m going to put a regular binding on it either, I’m thinking of doing a knife edge to it – I think I’ll need to do the edges before I quilt that last border though.

In October I started working on the pentagon project. It’s changed a few times since I decided what I wanted to do with it, so now I have 4 pentagons with a square in the middle appliqued to a background. I’ve gotten enough done that I put together the first row, used a ton of 1.5″ squares from the bin, and there’s a lot more that will be used by the time I’m done with this top. I’m working on putting the sashing together while I put together bow-tie blocks and the 9-patches I need for the border on that quilt. It’s all pretty mindless sewing when I need it.

As if I didn’t have enough hand projects, I pulled out some cross stitch and started working on that again. This is a piece for Alex and I have one I want to make for Cassie as well as one I want to make for 2 special teachers the kids have had. I have a bunch of Star Wars ones to make for Alex and at some point they’ll get done. In the past I’ve done all my cross stitch with paper patterns, but lately I’ve wanted to do it with an ipad. The app that I really want to use isn’t available for ios yet, and the android tablets we have are WAY to old for it to work. So I found a pdf app that will allow me to annotate the file and we’ll see how that works. I just got it updated last night but didn’t have time to try and see how well it works, might try that tonight.

Kids are off until next Monday (1/4), and I’m hoping to get some time to work on quilting. I got everything ready yesterday, because I intended on starting the quilting until I realized I may have inadvertently tossed my quilting gloves! I ordered a new pair yesterday, but who knows how long it will take for them to get to me. I’ll have to start quilting without them I guess and hope I have enough black thread to last until the new spool gets here with the gloves. I know I won’t be able to finish it before the end of the year, but I’d still like to start working on it and maybe start the new year with a finish.

Here’s hoping that 2021 is a better year for everyone and that I finish some projects in the new year!

Updates in September

Wow, 5 months without a post! It’s been a whirlwind last 5 months and I just haven’t done a lot of stitching. We finished the school year at home with mommy as the teacher, Cassie did great and Alex just didn’t want to work on anything. Home just isn’t the right place for my kids and school. They just started back this week and we’ve had an eventful first week! Yesterday the phone rang and my heart always drops when it says it’s the school. Yep, Alex threw up at recess and had to come home from school. So I had to run up to school and get him. Let’s hope it’s the only time this year!

It was a busy spring and summer with orders, including one to Germany that took forever to get there! Everyone was shopping online for the end of the school year gifts and it definitely helped me! It’s been a slow start to fall, but that’s ok it will pick up in the next month or so for Xmas. Because I was so busy with orders the sewing machine sat idle for a long time. Plus we were doing a lot of camping and visiting with family in other states. We stayed in the whole time but had so much fun!

Now that I am starting to have some time to myself I’ve been working on Harry Potter SAL blocks. Just finished another one today, I only have 9 more blocks and I can get the top put together. Since our quilt show for 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19 I have time to get this and maybe a couple more quilts completed before our show in September 2021.

I have a lot of projects to work on when I’m sitting in my chair at night, cross stitch, all the various EPP projects, a new knitting project and I picked up a QAYG Hexagon template at a guild meeting a few months ago and have been hand stitching those and will be machine stitching them together when they are all ready. Hope to be back soon with a new update, hopefully it won’t be 5 months from now!

Done!

Oh my goodness it’s been a busy couple of days of cutting. In an effort to start cleaning up the mess in my office and have enough walking space, Sunday I started working on pressing and cutting up all the scraps that accumulated in a basket. It took a long time, but it’s done and now the 2.5″, 2″ and 1.5″ bin are totally full and ready to be used. Cassie has already pulled a number of 1.5″ pieces out, she wants to make a pillow for one of her dolls. We started stitching them together the other night, but she got bored after getting 8 pairs sewn together. Now I have a tub FULL of fabrics that need to be put on the foam core board that has been cut and waiting for months now. I’m hoping to get it done by the end of the month, we’ll see if that can happen!

Lots of Updates!

Amazingly I haven’t had a lot of things that required me to leave the house the last few days. So I decided that it was time to spend some time sewing! Well I did take a nice long walk the other day it was so nice!

So first item up on my list was to get the border put on the Pokemon quilt. This top has been done for almost 2 years and I don’t know what I was waiting for! Not the best picture, kids had things out and I couldn’t get a better one. But the border is now on this and it’s in the to be quilted pile!

Since the top is now done I decided all the solids leftover from this could go into the Harry Potter quilt, since I need more to make it bigger than the original SAL. I think the SAL was for a twin bed size/throw and I’m making it large enough to fit our king size bed and hang over the sides properly – which I can never do for some reason. 🙂 So everything shown in the basket at the top is from the Pokemon quilt. In fact I used some of it already to make my next Harry Potter block! 9 3/4 is finished and I have 12 more blocks to go!

So with that done I decided to pull out my 2017 Hexie temperature quilt (picture from post in 2018) and see where I was with that. Boy did I leave that project in a mess! Back in 2018 I put the first 2 rows together and then put together the blocks and appliqued all the hexie flowers that were completed. It looks like I have 4 flowers that still need to be put together and I can possibly put the next 2 rows together. However, it looks like I never updated my spreadsheet/trello with what was completed AND it looks like I never got the high temp for the day from August 28th to the end of the year! So it looks like I’ll spend a little time today gathering the rest of my data and maybe even pulling fabrics for more hexies. Since we are going on a mini vacation for Spring Break I’ll need a project (or 2) to take with me!

Cassie wants to do some sewing today, we’ll see if she really makes anything!

February Finishes

I did manage to finish the 2 tasks I wanted to finish this month, I got the doll quilt completely finished AND I completed a block for my Harry Potter quilt. Cassie is thrilled with her new doll quilt, she immediately took it and put it on one of her doll beds. I just did simple loopy quilting in the triangles, I still need to work on my speed with curves, there’s some eyelashing on the back, but Cassie’s doll won’t care!

I picked an easy block from my Harry Potter quilt to do, the Deathly Hallows. With this block done I now only have 13 left to do! I might see if I can get another one done today, we’ll see since we have some rearranging to do in Cassie’s room today.

I was hoping to get my first hexagon quilt basted earlier in the month, and I wasn’t able to do that then, however I was able to start working on it today! i should be able to get it finished tonight while I watch some basketball. This will be hand quilted this year!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

I’m back!

Sigh….I just need to get back into sewing so I can post more! I started working on this post over a month ago, I don’ t even remember why I didn’t finish it!

School has started and both kids are loving their teachers and going to school – no matter what Alex says! Cassie is flying through sight words, her kindergarten teacher is amazed at what she knows already. My little girl is going to do so well in school! Alex is in third grade and he’s doing well too, loving his teachers this year which is a good thing! Just got reports cards for the 1st quarter and he’s got 3 B’s and an A – this is the first year that they get real grades. I’m more than happy with that!

In one of my IGSecretPal boxes I received some yarn, a Sweet Roll from Premier Yarns in a color way called Bubble Pop. I looked through Ravelry and found the Absolute Beginner Knit Cowl. It was so very easy and fairly quick, well quick for me, as I got it finished in 3 months. Once I got it finished I gave it to my little sister since pink is her color. The pattern was so easy that I might just make some more with some of the many, many yarns I have.

In September, I took a workshop on how to make jelly roll rugs. I used a jelly roll the husband bought me back in 2003 called Icicle Kisses from Kansas Troubles Quilters. Usually when I have time to take workshops I end up not having time to finish the project. Well not this time! I had my rug completed and took it back to the meeting in October for show and tell. It looks great in my kitchen right in front of the sink. I got some of that non-skid stuff to put under it so that no one slips and falls.

I’m trying to figure out what quilt I can pull out, baste and start working on quilting. I have too many quilts that are in the quilting queue and I have not been able to complete even 1 item off my UFO list this year. At least half of my list just needs to be quilted! I hope to be back soon with something to show!

Wow!

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted last. Since March I haven’t done much sewing at all. I’ve been spending a lot of time working on embroidery, things for family and orders, and I spent a lot of time at school towards the end of the school year. Both kids did wonderful the last few months of the year, Cassie graduated preschool and Alex has finished 2nd grade and is moving on to 3rd. He ended the year reading at an almost 6th grade level! Cassie hasn’t even started kindergarten yet and she can already read full books to herself! I’ve been doing lots of reading, while camping, at home and on our annual Virginia trip.

With just a little bit of time at home before our next trip, I decided I wanted to get something sewn this week. Over the last few days I’ve been cutting out the pieces needed to make another of the Harry Potter blocks, today I got the wand put together. This was a pretty easy one to do and I figured I had better start with something easy to get back into it. I was able to get a couple more bow tie blocks put together as leader and enders while working on this, I’m now up to 119 bow ties and I think for the design I want to do I need 128 bow ties. Just a few more to go!

Since we are going on vacation again I decided that I’m going to concentrate on hexie insanity exclusively for this trip. I have a big bag of prepped diamonds and flowers, they just need basted and put together. Between the long flight to California and back and time while visiting I think I might be able to work on these at least a little. I’ve been working on a cross stitch project at night, need to get that finished for a wedding gift – the wedding already happened and there’s going to be a party at a later date to celebrate but I still need to get the gift done! Hopefully by the time I get back from vacation I’ll have some more to show and maybe I can get another HP block put together before we leave, but I doubt that!

March Plans – Check!

Wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get everything done this month! Cassie turned 5 and she had a wonderful birthday weekend. Her first party with friends and I know she had a ball. Sad about the turnout, only 3 of 10 kids invited showed up, but we made it fun anyway.

So I wanted to get all of the O blocks cut out and basted in March. I did do that, and started putting them together as well. 2 are finished, only 10 more to go. Colors look funny on some of them because of the color of the card stock I used. Can’t wait to start putting this together! Cassie keeps asking when her quilt will be done, I guess I need to work on it more than I am already!

The main thing I wanted to get done this month was the first 7 blocks of the Harry Potter QAL over at Seriously I think it needs stitches. The blocks aren’t hard, well except for that car in the Whomping Willow that is. That one took me an entire day to do because I kept putting pieces together wrong and had to recut them and start over. As of today I just need to do 4 more blocks and I’m caught up, wonder if I can do that in the next week or so?

So I’ve been very busy this month sewing, I’m hoping to keep it up and maybe even get some work done on UFO’s. I haven’t touched any of them yet this year. I’m linking up to Elm Street Quilts for completing my March OMG.

March Plans

So I have a little girl that will be turning 5 this month, which means a party needs to be planned/held. Yet somehow my plans for this month are huge!

So first order of business is to get all the EPP pieces cut out for Cassie’s quilt and the fabric basted to them. In all likelihood I will work on getting the pieces put together as well, but the goal is just to get them basted. She hasn’t asked yet when it’s going to be done, but she gets so excited when I show her a new piece that’s put together!

You know I had to start working on a new quilt instead of finishing UFO’s right? LOL So I decided to do the Harry Potter quilt along over at Seriously I Think It Needs Stitches. In 2017-18 I made the Pokemon quilt based on Kellie’s pattern (yes I know it’s still in the UFO pile but I’m waiting for her awesome quilt back she promised us!) and I loved how her patterns just made the pieces go together so easily. When I saw she had a Harry Potter one coming I decided I was going to it. But when the SAL started in January I didn’t have my fabric yet and then I needed the background which was out of stock so I had to pick something else. Last week I got the first block done and now I have to get caught up on the rest. So the other part of this months goal is to get the following blocks completed: Ron Weasley, Cupboard Under the Stairs, HP monogram, Hedwig, Whomping Willow and Harry’s Glasses (out today no pdf to print yet).

So I’m a little ambitious this month with Cassie’s birthday, however the EPP is always worked on while the kids are playing or I’m watching tv/basketball games in the living room. Also, the kids are away at my sister’s this weekend, which means lots of time in my sewing room – except for our date this afternoon/evening!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts – OMG

Updates and One Monthly Goal

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been over 5 months since I posted anything! My only excuse is that I’ve been really busy with my business and the kids. I spent a lot of time in November and December working to get my new website up and running. Check it out Grace Embroidery & Quilts. I’m still selling on etsy, planning on using them both. I don’t think I made any Christmas presents this past year, although I did give my sister my blue and white quilt that was in the quilt show. She saw it and loved it, and since I really didn’t have any plans for it myself, decided to gift it to her.

The picture is from our guild quilt show, and the only picture I got of it finished before I gave it to her. I don’t know why it’s turned wrong, it was the right way when I uploaded it. I’m still getting used to this new way of working in wordpress. I’ll figure it out someday! 🙂

So last month as I was scrolling through my Instagram feed I saw a really cute pattern called All the Hugs and Kisses quilt (#allthehugsandkissesquilt on instagram) and there was a giveaway. So I entered like I always do and promptly forgot all about it. About a week later as I’m scrolling I see there’s another post with winners. Lo and behold my instagram name was listed! Katrina had decided to give each of us that entered a free digital copy of the pattern! My plan was to make the quilt for Cassie for her big girl bed that I need to get from my sister’s house. I’m just not ready for her to be needing it! So I showed Cassie the quilt and she wanted to know if it was going to be ready the next day. My little one has no patience! So we pulled some pink fabrics, because that is her favorite color and last night I started cutting them into the pieces needed for EPP. That’s one of the reasons I entered the giveaway, it’s an EPP pattern and these days it’s almost all i have time for. Today we stopped and got background fabric at Joann’s and some heavy card stock at Staples for the EPP papers. They are all printed and I’m going to start working on cutting them out tonight during the Super Bowl.

So, my One Monthly Goal this month is to get all of the 20 X’s done for this quilt. If I can get started on the O’s that’d be great, but I at least want all the X’s completed by month end. Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

I’m hoping to be around more this year, I’ve picked up my Dear Jane quilt again and will be joining a SAL (sew along) so I hope to have some progress on that quilt this year. And since I’m running the UFO challenge for guild I need to get some of my UFO’s done too!